Hello guys. I am a B permit holder and planning to leave Zurich for 5 months ( I know I can leave up to 6 months). I will still pay my rent and health insurance and other bills. My friend will pick up the letters for me. My question is, I am just not sure whether I should make a notification to the district office of Zurich city.

According to this link of Stadt Zurich, if I leave more than 3 months, I should tell the district office otherwise they will delete my registration and my permit will become invalid.
https://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/prd/de/...wesenheit.html

It also seems like the district office defines this leaving notification as ‘de-registration. Is that an accurate translation? I don’t know any German, so I just read the page by Google translator and I definitely don’t want to de-register at all.

Another weird thing I find out is, I have a friend who left for Korea 6 months ago and didn’t make a notification at that time. She came back a few days ago, and nothing wrong with her B permit.

So, should I make this notification? I am totally confused now and really need some suggestions. Many thanks in advance.

It says that you have to notify the Kreisbüro of your return within 14 days in person. Only if you fail to make this notification within this delay you will be deregistered.

The service that Zurich offers on that page is indeed a temporary deregistration. You're not obliged to do this if you leave for 5 months (or for any duration up to 6 months at a time with a B permit), provided you continue to pay your rent, health insurance and the authorities can reach you by snail mail (i.e. you set up a working post redirection or a friend periodically checks your mail).

My understanding is that this service is for people that want to e.g. sublet their apartment during their absence in case their flat is too small to keep both them and the subtenants registered there simultaneously. Maybe one could also suspend health insurance payments etc.